My Top Five Virtual News Posts
I had planned to cover the Virtual Worlds Forum event this week but it was cancelled because of an incident in the parking lot at the venue which forced the venue to close. So instead I thought a round-up of some of the recent virtual world news might be a good alternative, see below for my top five virtual posts from the last couple of weeks.
1) A new study by Penn State University found that groups worked together better in online world Second Life than in face-to-face meetings and teleconferences.
2) My mother is a drug abuse social worker so I got very excited when I read about real world addiction getting virtual treament.
3) Reuters write-up on Coca-Cola reigniting their virtual world presence in Second Life with the Nestea sponsored “Junkyard Blues” venue.
4) The University of Texas will hold the first Carter Academic Service Entrepreneur (CASE) grant program for virtual worlds. Students will have to use Second Life to serve real-world communities to be eligible for the grant.
5) Some might argue this as not being virtual but I for one think it applies…Hexolab announced the first interactive YouTube clip with “A Car’s Life”, view it below.
Of course, I was looking to cover a wide range of topics with my top 5 but don’t expect that everyone agrees with my line up… 
So, what virtual news do you think should have made the list? I encourage you to submit a comment with your contribution!
Posted by Dannette Veale at 11:00AM PST
Maria Tseng Nov 14, 2008
Great comment about how meetings in virtual worlds can work better than face-to-face ones. I’ve found, though years of working “virtually,” mostly by phone, IM, WebEx… (not video) with teams based around the world, that the level of personal politics was significantly lowered. I would think that an avatars would inject a level of information into interactions that might even ‘overcome’ some of the natural human assumptions if someone were to meet me in person. (For example, my interaction partner might react differently if I looked like a possible date or more like ‘Nurse Ratched’ for those who are old enough to have seen the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_Ratched)
So what implications might arise when comparing ‘business intereations’ in virtual worlds, using avatars, against the near-in-person experience of TelePresence?
—Maria Tseng